


Counting Stars

by kissing2cousins



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Developing Relationship, First Time, Fluff and Angst, M/M, One Republic - Counting Stars, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-01 22:25:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissing2cousins/pseuds/kissing2cousins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Songfic Challenge - "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic</p><p>Daniel goes to Jack for some much needed relationship advice only to have his answer confuse him even more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counting Stars

ADF

 

“Why, Daniel?! Why the fuck is it so hard for you to just tell me the truth?” her voice cried out in a tortured crescendo of notes broken by sobs and echoed by the musical shattering of the crystal wine glass she pitched with all her fury past his head.

 

He hadn’t flinched—was it because this scene was all too familiar?  How many nights had he found the pretty redhead like this, misguided into a rage by the lonely nights spent with only her Zinfandel to warm her?  The freckles that daintily blotched the bridge of her thin nose and the apples of her cherub-like cheeks were flared a dark umber, stained like the rest of her face from both her explosive and impetuous anger and the flush of the wine, but above them narrowed emerald daggers, cloaked in the smearing of her dark mascara.  The glassy whites of her eyes threatened tears and yet tonight Daniel wondered if they would come.  With his hands raised plaintively in submission to her raging outburst, he tried to defuse the situation before he found out the answer, by softly repeating the same response he always gave her, “I understand your frustration, Sheena, I really do…but you know, as well as I do…that I cannot answer that question.  We agreed that we would share everything, always and freely with one another…but my work for the government is—“

 

“Is such fucking bullshit.” she snapped, her point punctuated by the hammer of the empty wine bottle against the quartz counter top of the island in her kitchen.  Her other hand relieved of the wine glass she had clenched furiously in her finger tips minutes before now raked back the tumbling red curls from her forehead, working in a mad pace to bundle the thick tresses into a knot at the back of head to keep them from her obscuring her vision.  Above the island that stood as a barrier between them in the small but elaborately decorated kitchen the chandelier cast its illuminating glow and corresponding shadows down onto the hair he adored to twirl about his fingers when they passionately made love.  Her hands worked to tame that same flaming mane as she ranted at her lover over the only real burden that blocked true intimacy in their blossoming relationship, seeming to repeat word for word the same argument she always gave to defend her tirades.  Daniel found it hard not to tune her out.  “It’s not fair, Daniel.  You are gone sometimes for weeks at a time, you return burned out or…or worse—maimed!  And I get absolutely no explanation!  I’m just supposed to accept it all!”

 

Daniel took a step towards her, his shoe crunching the broken wine glass on the hardwood beneath, as he reached a gently hand out to catch her elbow, trying desperately to reassure her—to calm her insecurities.  His lover allowed this small peace offering in the midst of their warring and in a soft voice he mechanically reminded her, “This is what we knew we were committing to, Sheena.  I wish that I could share my work with you…but you know that I can’t.  I’m sorry.”

 

With a peel of laughter, the redhead threw her head back and wrenched her arm from his tender grip.  In one fluid motion, she spun on the kitten heel of her shoe and began to stalk out of the kitchen away from him.  Daniel couldn’t help but notice the intoxicated sway to her step that accentuated the shapely curve of her hips in the knee length black pencil skirt that hugged her bottom and legs.  She was lecturing him again on the standards that she expected him to adhere to if he were to still in deed with to court the redhead—something that she had manufactured recently within the last couple of weeks.  Something he had not agreed to when he had first accepted after his wife’s passing to allow himself the pleasure of getting to know the saucy green eyed law intern that frequented his obscure corner of the city’s library.

 

Again, he failed to catch it all, trailing after her only after she had kicked off her heels off with a loud thwack against her apartment door.  Then she stopped, swiped his coat from the coat rack and unceremoniously deposited at her feet.  Through clenched teeth, she hissed, “I think you know the drill.  Take your government bullshit and piss off.” 

 

_Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep_ _  
Dreaming about the things that we could be_

“I understand it, Jack, I really do.” Daniel explained, thumbing the lip of his the cold beer in his hands, as he tried to put into words what the implosion of his relationship with Sheena was really weighing on his shoulders.  He licked his lips, giving a soft chuckle, as it suddenly hit him—the reason why most of his fellow gaters had struggled nailing down a solid relationship—and he slapped his friend’s shoulder to grab his attention away from the telescope to demonstrate his epiphany.  “I guess what self-respecting person would want all of the baggage that comes with someone like us.  I bet when we finally kick the bucket—or something else kicks the damn thing for us—that the only things not blacked out in our obituaries will been our names.”

 

Jack gave Daniel enough attention to allow the scientist to see him flick his brows in that way that meant touché, before turning back to the eyepiece of his telescope and the stars that speckled the night sky above them.  It had not been all that long since Daniel had come to share the small square of deck space that the Jack’s telescope occupied and the Colonel had not been surprised when the brunette’s Jeep had pulled up into his driveway, just after sundown.  What did surprise Jack was that it had taken nearly eight beers and a pizza to release the cork and now he kind of wished he hadn’t. 

 

Relationships were messy.  Jack had figured that much out.  It seemed that Daniel was not far off from making the same realization now too.

 

“She just…I guess that I…that I don’t want to disappoint her, I want her to have it all and I just know that…that I can’t give her that.  S-she deserves…she deserves it all.”

 

Jack groaned to hear the strain in the scientist’s voice that accompanied those words and he pinched the bridge of his nose to try to relieve the tension that mounted between them as beer coaxed the flood.  Jack caught movement from the brunette moving his hands as he went to say more and Jack cut him off abruptly, jerking back from the telescope and seizing the conversation to silence.  Daniel looked at him with shock and amusement, his cheeks flushed from the beer and his hands drawn up in submission, beer still clasped in his fingers.  Jack scoffed at Daniel and ordered his colleague to put his hands down.  “You see,” Jack pointed out, brashly, “you gotta’ stop being so submissive, Daniel.  You’re letting this perky little red hen walk all over you.  You don’t owe her any explanations, you made that clear, don’t let her make you own up to mistakes you haven’t made.”

 

Daniel gave him a thin smile and sheepishly—very honestly—admitted, “But I want to make her happy.”

 

“She’s making herself unhappy.” Jack pointed out, “Don’t let her bring you down too.”

 

The scientist nodded, still thumbing the lip of the beer.  Jack wondered just how much his colleague actually agreed with his sentiments regarding the matter and how much he was just doing it to make it look like he was.  Then, with his head still hung low, he heard the other man admit it, “Ya know, I think for once you’re right, Jack.”

 

 _I see this life like a swinging vine_ __  
Swing my heart across the line  
And my face is flashing signs  
Seek it out and you shall find

“Another three weeks, Daniel,” she whispered, through a whimper that felt like a whiplash to his back—each hitch to her words a blow that seared flesh and soul.  The afterglow of their fierce lovemaking shattered by his inability to allow her to bask in the misconception that one long mission would mean another would not proceed it.  She shook her head sadly over him as she rose from lying on top of his naked form to straddle his midsection and beat her clenched fists against his chest.  “I swear…I swear it, Daniel, this secrecy will be the death of me.  How can you expect me to…to wait for you?”

 

 _Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep_ __  
Dreaming about the things that we could be  
But baby, I've been, I've been praying hard,  
Said, no more counting dollars  
We'll be counting stars

Didn’t take half as many beers or coaxing this time, Daniel had come out with the shitty details easily enough.  It wasn’t that part that Jack felt bothered him about the whole scenario playing out again—like a broken record—it was the ease that his friend exuded now, as they shared another cold one and shared the lens of his telescope admiring the stars.  What had changed?

 

Not one to beat around the bush, per say, Jack called the scientist out on it.  The brunette’s flush was both from the beer and from his obvious embarrassment—the Colonel was still confused.  Daniel shrugged, sitting back from the telescope he was seated in front of, and gave Jack a wan smirk, as though he meant to blow him off.  Then in a low but firm voice he said, “Ya know, Jack, it’s like I said before.  No one would want us…with all that we bring to the table—“

 

“That’s the biggest load of crap you’ve tried to sell me yet, Doctor, and I am sure hell not buying it.” Jack protested, shaking his beer at his colleague.   “You gotta’ stop letting her do this to ya’, Danny.”

 

“I know, I know, Jack,” Daniel admitted softly, pointing his half empty beer back at his friend, “that part I get now.  You’re absolutely right there.”

 

“And…?” Jack was too impatient for Daniel to continue.  The older man wanted to know just what his younger counter part was going to do with his imparted wisdom.

 

“And so,” Daniel sighed heavily, leaning forward to the edge of his seat, “that’s why…I’ve decided that I’m finally ready to do something for myself.”

 

Jack was confused.  This was closer to the goal he had in mind for the young scientist to reach but he still seemed slightly off the mark.  He hadn’t long to ponder before the answer hit him—square on the mouth.  It wasn’t the answer he was looking for but for some reason, with Daniel thrown against him, their arms about each other, something seemed just right.

 

 _I feel something so right_ __  
Doing the wrong thing  
I feel something so wrong  
Doing the right thing

Jack was roused from his sleep by the sudden and unfamiliar shift on the other side of his queen sized mattress.  The movement startled him at first but he settled as he seen the dark form of his colleague gliding silently from one side of his master bedroom to the other, gathering his callously discarded jeans and polo.  As he watched in satisfaction as the brunette pulled the robin’s egg blue Hilfiger polo down over his lean torso, the events of the night came back to him with a flush of excitement—only too quickly drained away when he surmised what his partner was doing.

 

He bolted from the bed, disregarding his nakedness, as he grabbed the scientist around the biceps to halt his retreat.  “Daniel, don’t go…you don’t have to leave.  It’s okay.” He reassured.

 

The younger man shook his down turned head and wriggled from his grip, protesting, “No, Jack…I can’t do this.  I have to go back to Sheena’s.  This…this is wrong.”

 

 _Old, but I'm not that old_ __  
Young, but I'm not that bold  
I don't think the world is sold  
I'm just doing what we're told

Rubbing the sleep from her weary emerald eyes, Sheena opened the door to stop the persistent knocking of her lover.  “It’s three,” she groaned through a yawn, allowing him to step around her and into her apartment’s tiny entranceway.  “the bed is colder when you’re not around.”

 

“I-I’m sorry, I fell asleep…” he lied.  The ease of it shocked him and he grabbed the redhead into his arms to suppress the guilt that followed.  He pressed his mouth against her tender lips and his body against the curve of hers, even though in his mind he was still counting stars.

 

_I feel the love and I feel it burn_ _  
Down this river, every turn_

_~fin~_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
